Ho ho ho!

I am really loving that song Train performed for Coca-Cola. It has the brand jingle all over it. It reminds me of the World Cup (which I sorely miss). Coke has really done something with that little jingle. Since people generally shy away from ads, they incorporated it into something people actually like- MUSIC. And now the tune is attributed to them. Smart move!

As we are now in the topic of the World Cup, I would just like to express my fondness towards the Philippine National Football Team. Although they did not manage to move on to the Final of the AFF Suzuki Cup, they did get to the semifinals despite the lack of training, decent training grounds, funds and sponsors. I am so proud of them for what they have achieved under the circumstances! As a true fan of football, I also like what they have done for the beautiful game in this nation that loves too much boxing and basketball. People who never watched football and know/care nothing about it tuned in to cheer for the team. I could only wish they [the players] can see this. But at the moment, they do not have a Home Stadium to call their own. All the previous games have been away in Vietnam and Indonesia. Don't even ask me how I feel about that. I can tell you I've been discussing it on Twitter with a good friend, and we are beyond unhappy.

I was supposed to go the cinema today to watch The Fighter today, because I wanted to write a review for this blog (Obviously the blog has been quiet as of late). The closest cinema to my house belongs to an SM Mall, and they took off the movie from their lineup all of a sudden! They should change their tagline from "We got it all for you!", because they certainly DO NOT. As if I needed any more reason to dislike the SM Corporation.

In other news, a few days ago my brother and I tried making these Cake Pops I saw from the Bakerella website. These little treats have been getting some major attention. I even saw Bakerella in the Today Show. Unfortunately it was a great failure! And a traumatizing one at that! I guess I couldn't find the right kind of chocolate for dipping. We managed to make these three decent sad-looking ones. In any case...
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE! :)

Cheesecake-Swirled Brownies

I woke up early this morning for some reason. I think I was a little too excited about continuing Hunger Games because that book is all kinds of fantastic. I was looking through the pantry for some coffee when I noticed the pack of expensive cooking chocolate given to us a long time ago by an aunt. My Mum tells me it will expire soon so she urges me to get rid of them, so I thought I'd go on ahead and use them. There's no point in wasting fine dark cooking chocolate, yeah?

I actually accidentally dropped some melted chocolate into my cream cheese mixture (insert sad face here) so my marbling doesn't particularly look as nice as I would've wanted. As you can see in the above photo, the marbling is almost non-existent. Sometimes these things happen and one can only sigh. But in all honesty I wanted to slap myself for doing something avoidable.

Cheesecake-Swirled Brownies

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients for brownie batter:
1/2 cup (4 oz or 1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
85g (3 oz) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tspn. pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2/3 cup all-purpose flour

Procedure for the brownie batter:
Preheat oven at 350F, making sure the oven rack is set at the middle of the oven. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and set aside.

Heat butter and chopped chocolate in a mixing bowl floating over simmering water. Make sure the heat is low to moderate so as the chocolate will melt more gently. Occasionally stir or whisk the misture until fully melted.

Remove from the heat and immediately whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla and that pinch of salt until well combined. Whisk in the flour until just combined, careful not to overmix. The batter should be kind of gooey and thick. Pour the batter into the baking pan and spread.

Ingredients for the cheesecake batter:
8 oz cream cheese, well-softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 tspn. pure vanilla extract

*1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Procedure:
Whisk together all ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. The chocolate chips can be added into the cheesecake batter, but I would recommend topping them later on after marbling.


Dollop the cheesecake batter over the brownie batter, then swirl with a butter knife by folding some of the cheesecake batter over the brownie batter in swirling motions. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the marbled batter if you haven't already put them into the cheesecake batter.

Bake the brownies until edges are slightly puffed and center is just set. I baked mine for 35 minutes more or less. It can be served warm, at room temperature or chilled.